The Pretenders – The Best
Having released their self-titled debut (with “Stop Your Sobbing,” “Brass In Pocket” and the jangling “Mystery Achievement) and “Pretenders II” (containing “Message Of Love,” “I Go To Sleep” and “Talk Of The Town”) The Pretenders’ story took a tragic turn.
Bassist Peter Farndon was rolling out of control due to drugs and alcohol. The decision was made to kick him out of the band. Ironically, the next day (6/16/82), guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died from a drug overdose. Farndon wasn’t any luckier. A year later, he too succumbed to drugs.
Only Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers were left. They started working with Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner and bassist Tony Butler finishing “My City Was Gone” and “Back On The Chain Gang.” Both songs were on the band’s crowning achievement, “Learning To Crawl.”
#10. Time The Avenger
The track from “Learning To Crawl” helped the album become was a critical and commercial success (#5 on the Billboard 200) becoming the band’s highest-charting album in the U.S.
#9. Talk Of The Town
Released first as a single and then on The Pretenders’ EP, a slightly shortened version was included on the band’s 1981 album “Pretenders II.”
#8 Thumbelina
A Country-Rock song about a mother and daughter traveling across America, with the last line suggesting that the mother is leaving her husband. The track is on the “Learning To Crawl” album.
#7. Don’t Get Me Wrong
It was the first single released from the band’s fourth studio album, Get Close” (1986). Hynde said she was inspired to write the song for her friend, tennis great John McEnroe.
#6. Message Of Love
“The song was largely formed in the studio based on a rough sketch presented by Hynde,” remembered drummer Martin Chambers. “We never really got into the studio without any rehearsal and record a song. (Hynde) likes to come to (the band) when she has (a song) finished in her mind … but this time she hadn’t really finished it and so we just … rehearsed it already set up in the studio and it was on tape in two hours, basically.”
#5. Mystery Achievement
Chris Thomas produced this song and nearly all of the band’s self-title debut. But that was not what was intended. Nick Lowe (Rockpile) produced the band’s first single, “Stop Your Sobbing,” but decided not to work with them again as he thought the band was “not going anywhere.”
#4. Brass In Pocket
Written by Hynde and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who developed the guitar lick, it became the band’s biggest hit to that point, with the music video being the seventh aired during MTV’s launch in 1981.
#3. My Cty Was Gone
The song originally appeared as the B-side of “Back on the Chain Gang.” The lyrics were an autobiographical lament, with Hynde returning to her childhood home of Akron, Ohio and discovering that rampant development had destroyed the “pretty countryside” of her youth
#2, Back On The Chain Gang
The song was recorded after Honeyman-Scott died of a drug overdose at the age of 25 and just days after The Pretenders fired bassist Pete Farndon because of his drug problem. “We had rehearsed it a lot with Jimmy, and thought it would make a pretty good single,” remembered drummer Martin Chambers.
#1. Middle Of The Road
The third single from 1984’s “Learning To Crawl” album peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Mainstream Rock Chart where it stayed for four weeks. It also benefited for massive MTV airplay.
The Pretenders (original line-up):
Chrissie Hynde – Vocals/Guitar
James Honeyman-Scott – Guitar
Pete Farndon – Bass
Martin Chambers – Drums
###
